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Hey folks,

I bought my son his first bike less than 6 months ago. It's a CRF 150F of course. About a month ago the battery died. I hooked it up to the trickle charger and it would not charge. The charger wouldn't even register that a battery was hooked up to it. I took the battery to the dealership and the dealer hooked the battery up to his charger and was puzzled as to why his charger wouldn't register the battery as being hooked up either.

The long and short of it is that he replaced the battery. Evertything was fine until the new battery did the same thing in less than a month after only one ride. The new battery won't charge and won't register on the trickle charger. Is anyone else having issues with the batteries on a 150? The problem is that my son left the key in the on position which after some research on this board I learned that current is still being drawn from the battery when the key is in the on position. But why won't the battery charge back up when connected to a charger? Why on earth would Honda put an electric start on these bikes?! This was a solution searching for a problem. What was wrong with the kick start that has worked for decades? Any ideas? Thanks.

Mike

If there is a draw on the battery with the key on then there is a problem. You should not have a current draw with the key on. The key on my 230 has been on for over a year with out any problems. It is not going to be the starter; it is not allowed access to the battery until the starter relay is engaged.
The regulator/rectifier gets its power directly and is independent from the key.

I don’t have a schematic of the electric start 150 but I have one for my 230. The frame is ground.
Going on the assumption that you have proved current is leaking only when the key is on then I would check for debris in your connections, mud, grass, anything that would allow current to leak to ground.
After studding the schematic I believe the starter relay connections could be the issue. The relay (on my 230) is in the battery box. Many of the wires exit the box above the relay. I know from routine maintenance that this opening is very susceptible to mud from the rear tire and water from general cleaning. The ignition switch and the ICM [ignition control module], aka CDI or rev box, could also be at fault.
If cleaning does not resolve the problem then I would suspect a faulty component. It should be easy to identify which by disconnecting them one by one.

Luck

Thanks for the response. I'm gonna inspect the battery box and components therein for cleanliness. I called the dealership and they told me to bring it in. For some reason the bike is killing batteries. I'm gonna search for a wiring diagram. The only thing I can think of that would destroy a battery like this is if the positive and negative were getting crossed somehow on an intermittent basis causing the battery to burn up.

Mike

you already know that leaving the key on will kill the battery....

if the battery is completly drained, sometimes the charger will not charge the battery since it's voltage is too low to register.
i've had 3 batteries do this to me. found out by taking them into a battery shop. they jump charged the batteries, then they took the charge.

good luck